Silliness from WaPo on Six US Attorneys Serving in other DOJ positions
A really silly entry today from WaPo’s Dan Eggen on another non-controversy — the fact that six US Attorneys from various districts around the country currently serve in dual capacities by holding down positions elsewhere in DOJ.
The best he can find by way of “complaint” about such a circumstance is that a Clinton appointed judge in Montana has his knickers in a knot over the fact that Bill Mercer has spent a couple years serving in the dual capacity as US Attorney for the District of Montana, and a couple different positions in DOJ.
What Eggen manages to avoid reporting on in any fashion — and a few simple phone calls would have probably produced the necessary facts — is the question of what jobs Mercer has been involved in at Main Justice, and why was Mercer tapped for those jobs?
Well, I happen to know someone who was hired by Mercer while he was Acting Principal Assistant Attorney General, so I happen to know what it was Mercer was doing.
When Congress passed the Patriot Act 2, one of the things it created at DOJ was a new “National Security Division.” Link
That Division now has responsibility for investigating and prosecuting cases of counter-terrorism and counter-espionage. It was formed by taking the Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Espinoage Sections out of the Crimnial Division, and joining them with the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. The National Security Division was authorized by Congress to bring the resources and information sharing of counterterrorism, counterespionage, and intelligence gathering under under one Division with one leader – the new Assistant Attorney General for National Security.
Creating a new Division within a bureaucracy like DOJ takes a little work, even when its being created by bringing together two existing sections. But there was some problems internally at DOJ during the time this was supposed to get done. Ordinarily the Office of the Deputy Attorney General would handle the details of creating a new organizational chart — budgeting, lines of authority/reporting, personnel assignments, etc. But, the DAG office had departures in 2003 of Larry Thompson, and 2005 of James Comey, and it was in the fall of 2005 that the real work of creating the National Security Section began. But the DAG office was emply from July 2005 — Paul McNulty would become Acting Dep. AG in Nov. 2005, and was later confirmed in March 2006 — Mercer in his role as Acting Principal Assistant Attorney General (de facto serving as Acting DAG at the same time), was given the task of beginning the process of getting the National Security Section formed, up and running.
Based on the work that Mercer did in getting the process rolling before McNulty became Dep. AG, Mercer was later nominated by the Pres. to be the Principal Assistant Attorney General — the No. 4 slot in Justice. That nomination has been pending for 8 months without Senate confirmation.
What would the WaPo have Mercer do — resign as US Attorney for Montana while the Senate twiddles its thumbs on his nomination?
Same for the US Attorney in Massachusetts — I’m sure he would like to be confirmed as Director of ATF where his nomination is pending, and would resign as US Attorney.
“The growing reliance on federal prosecutors to fill Washington-based jobs also comes amid controversy over the firings of eight other U.S. attorneys last year.”
That’s from Eggen also. Six US Attorneys out of 94 hold down a second position — and as I’ve noted, two of those 6 are holding offices for which they’ve been nominated by the President and are awaiting Senate action.
The absences by Iglesias that were used in part to justify his firing are of a wholly different nature, and led to complaints from WITHIN his office. By his own admission he was taking 6 weeks a year for Naval Reserve duty, in addition to other time he spent away from his district attending conferences and other such gatherings — and there are no shortage of such opportunities for US Attorneys.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. When a gov’t employee like Iglesias heads off to military reserve duty, its not completely an act of selflessness in service of one’s country. By law the military reservist is entitled to receive his/her regular government salary while away on military reserve duty. That reservist also draws a military salary for the time on reserve duty. I know AUSAs who are former JAG officers and who do their reserve duty every year, making an additional $12,000 to $15,000 in income that way.
And, more significantly, for those that had a significant period of active duty service — and I think Iglesias did — the time spent on reserve duty is added to their service time for purposes of calculating military retirement pay when they reach the eligible age.
So, Iglesias was away from his office 6 weeks a year on Naval Reserve duty, drawing double salary while doing so, and earning service time credit towards both a military retirement and a civilian retirement.
So let me see if I understand what you are saying… Mercer was nominated to a political position (AAG for National Security), and the nomination was held up in the Senate, probably due to politics.
There is only one way this can be reported in tomorrow’s NY and LA Times:
“AG Gonzales Sought to Remove *Yet Another* U.S. Attorney From His Post For Political Reasons.”
Comment by Al Maviva — 4/10/2007 @ 3:11 am
Huh. So it was a Republican Congress that held up approval of those nominations…
Doubtless they were busy, and their schedules were filled – with stealing from taxpayers, collecting bribes, and shredding the constitution.
Comment by Mister Natural — 4/10/2007 @ 5:11 am
I think your comment about Iglesias’ Navy Reserve service not being a complete “act of selflessness in service of one’s country” was a cheapshot. What does Iglesias’ personal finances have to do with purgegate? To me, it is just a personal atack on Iglesias.
Comment by Blue Neponset — 4/10/2007 @ 7:11 am
[...] Parrotico’s Pontifications » Silliness from WaPo on Six US Attorneys Serving in other DOJ positio… [...]
Note: This is a response I posted at poliburo diktat to his pingback link.
“Commissar:
Patterico warned me about boys like you.
While it was nice of you to quote accurately the passage you selected above, it might have been intellectualy honest of you to provide some context or at least mention to your readers that the point being made to was expose the false comparison the WaPo article made between the claim of absenteeism made against Iglesias, and the claim of absenteeism made against Bill Mercer in the WaPo article. A reader here would have no idea that my post at Patterico is a swipe at the WaPo for its snarky claim that a judge in Montana has called for Mercer to be canned for spending too much time in Washington, and then sets up the false comparison to Iglesias when his absenteeism was mentioned as one of the reasons for him having asked for his resignation.
Mercer spent time in Washington as the Acting Principal Assistant Attorney General to help bring into existence the new National Security Division of the Department of Justice, created by the Patriot Act 2.
Iglesias spent 6 weeks a year away from his district doing his Naval Reserve duty.
Mercer didn’t get paid a dime extra in pay for his work.
Iglesias got the equivalent of an extra month of salary for his Reserve work.
The point was/is that the WaPo is offering cover for Iglesias while falsely impugning Mercer, when the facts behind their respective time away from their offices is not even close to being comparable.
Also, you may want to spend a little more time reading the news and less time propogandizing, it would save you from mistakes like this:
“Smearing a guy, just because he wouldn’t file baseless political charges…”
I guess you missed the news:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nm/pr/20070329_Metropolitan_Courthouse.pdf
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/apr/02/richardson-took-campaign-contributions-figures-cou/
Pingback by Parrotico smears Iglesias at politburo diktat 2.0 — 4/10/2007 @ 7:59 am
Let’s see, the guy is a Republican, appointed by a Republican president.
He’s not a politician.
He had his reputation stained for political purposes (claiming he was removed for performance issues which we now know was obviously not true).
So we’ve got to attack him (because let’s face it, we’re a one trick pony here at Patterico’s Place, that’s what we do).
So let’s go after his military service! He obviously hates America, why else would he serve in America’s armed forces?
Pretty pathetic if not predictable.
[Comment about my job deleted.] (And yes, I do realize he didn’t write the post. But he does host it. And just as MSNBC has to take responsibility for the idiotic things that come out of Imus’ mouth, so must Patterico.
Maybe your time will be better spent cancelling your subscription to the LA Times for the thirtieth time?
Comment by Davebo — 4/10/2007 @ 8:10 am
I guess its easy to miss a point clearly made if a reader is determined to do so.
Re Iglesias — read the WaPo story.
It sets up a false comparison of Mercer’s absenteeism from the District of Montana with Iglesias’ absenteeism from the District of New Mexico.
Eggen notes that a Clinton appointed judge in Montana has called for Mercer to be canned by DOJ because of his absenteeism, and then notes that absenteeism was one of the reasons given by DOJ for canning Iglesias.
This suggests the false comparison that Mercer is getting more favorable treatment than Iglesias.
I simply point out the false comparison by noting that Mercer was in DC doing a extraordinarily important job that had to get done at a time when the DAG’s office was unfilled, while Iglesias is out of his district doing another important job — though on an order of magnitude less significant than what Mercer was doing — which just happens to supplement his income by about 10% and earns him additional retirement credit. I said it was “not completely” and act of selflessness — I’ve have friends who do the same thing, but they recognize that its double dipping and it deprives the US Attorney’s Office of 6 weeks worth of their effort each year.
But, if the left wingnuts want to claim that facts are smears — well, you’re good at that and I’ve got pretty thick skin.
Comment by wls — 4/10/2007 @ 8:38 am
Davebo,
The opinions of WLS and other guest posters are not necessarily those of management. I do find posts like this very insightful, though, and I am pleased to have someone with WLS’s insider knowledge posting on the site.
Derogatory comments that mention my job in any way will be deleted or edited as yours was. Repeat infractions will end in a ban.
Comment by Patterico — 4/10/2007 @ 9:13 am
I follow Hilary Clinton’s advice when dealing with BDS sufferers:
Saul Alinsky’s Rule # 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.
Don’t even bother to address them on the merits. They’re not interested and you’ll never change their minds. Just treat them like the jokes they are.
Comment by nk — 4/10/2007 @ 9:13 am
You mean besides lawyer jokes, right? cause if you’re dis-allowing those, this is gonna be a long day for me…
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 4/10/2007 @ 9:18 am
Hmpf.
I slapped WLS hard about another post so I guess its only right to say I appreciate this post, I think it provides some interesting insight.
The part about serving in 2 posts simultaneously is oh so government service, reminds me of my military days.
Comment by Dwilkers — 4/10/2007 @ 9:23 am
wls,
Iglesias’ personal finances, including his Reserve pay and pension benefits, have nothing to do with this scandal. The only reason to mention them is to smear the man for “double dipping” from the Government’s coffers.
Comment by Blue Neponset — 4/10/2007 @ 9:24 am
What’s more, he was going to poison Number One’s cold snack.
Comment by Andrew J. Lazarus — 4/10/2007 @ 10:24 am
Blue Neponset!?
Trivia: What major landmark that people identified with Nepsonset was eventually torn down and no longer exists?
Comment by The Liberal Avenger — 4/10/2007 @ 11:48 am
Err – NEPONSET. Sorry about my spelling.
Comment by The Liberal Avenger — 4/10/2007 @ 11:49 am
The Neponset drive-in?
Comment by Blue Neponset — 4/10/2007 @ 12:15 pm
Hooray!
Your sig URL is broken, btw.
Comment by The Liberal Avenger — 4/10/2007 @ 1:17 pm
I simply point out the false comparison by noting that Mercer was in DC doing a extraordinarily important job that had to get done at a time when the DAG’s office was unfilled, while Iglesias is out of his district doing another important job — though on an order of magnitude less significant than what Mercer was doing — which just happens to supplement his income by about 10% and earns him additional retirement credit. I said it was “not completely” and act of selflessness — I’ve have friends who do the same thing, but they recognize that its double dipping and it deprives the US Attorney’s Office of 6 weeks worth of their effort each year
Iglesias is a republican nominated by a republican and apppointed by a republican and confirmed by republicans. He was in the reserves at the time he was nominated, appointed, and confirmed. If being in the reserves is now a black mark on one’s resume, then the world has indeed turned upsidedown.
mls, your “insight” is ridiculous. You are trying to twist a factset to fit your argument, and you look silly doing so.
BTW, anyone have an idea of the number of USA’s who also “deprive their offices” of 6 weeks of service due to their military obligations?
Comment by joey — 4/11/2007 @ 8:05 am
Joey — I’m sure there is a count of the number of AUSA’s who are also reservists or in the National Guard.
But, in the two offices that I have been a member of over the last 15 years, there were 0 in the first office, but 6 in the second office.
Comment by wls — 4/11/2007 @ 8:49 am